Space Odyssey: Spectre

Jace parked his hoverbike and whistled. He reached up and tapped the earpiece communication device that was around his ear. "You are right, Officer P'lice. The entrance was right where you said it was." Jace admitted as he dismounted from his hoverbike.

He took a moment to double check his gear. He brought his knife and was keeping it in a sheath instead of having to materialize it. He was not sure what would pop up so he had to keep at least one weapon on him. He also had a few things on him that were not something of his typical tool set. Including a data pad hacking device, a rope, and a flashlight.

"I figured, but I could only get so much information." Officer P'lice replied. "I mean it has been difficult to scan below the planet's surface with so many magnetic sources of ore. We got lucky that part of the structure was above ground. Otherwise it might have never been found."

Jace made his way toward the bunker-like building. Looking over the overgrowth that covered it. Even the doors were partially blocked by a tree root. He moved to the door and wrapped a fist against it. The door was definitely made of metal, but he was not just seeing what it was made of. He was also sending a pulse of electricity through it to see how deeply it reached.

"I just checked and the bunker or more likely underground lab, goes at least a mile underground." Jace announced. "I will try to stay in contact but…"

"But the magnetic ores that are just below the surface of the planet are likely to interfere. I understand, I will let Captain Neslie know. She is investigating a sighting of a kitinol. Apparently the locals described a large one they saw and were unaware of the kitinol's existence. How does that happen?" Officer P'lice explained to him.

"The Imperium had a variety of threats. But there were nations separating them from the kitinol. So since the Imperium were such big isolationists they never took notice about the kitinols nor about likely teaching their people about threats outside their nation." Jace explained as he gripped the edge of the door and started to slowly pull it open.

The moment it opened up he could smell a foul stench that came from the facility. "You know you should probably provide them with a cheat sheet of information on threats exclusively from the nearby systems and anything else they might not have been exposed to in the Imperium."

"I will get on that." Officer P'lice answered.

Jace moved into the building as he switched on his flashlight. Checking his hacking data pad to confirm the air inside was not toxic. After a moment he began to move inside finding a bunch of dark green moss lining the walls. He walked a few feet into the building and found another metal sliding door.

He set down his flashlight and then began to pry open the elevator doors. As he pulled them open he could feel the springs holding the doors closed breaking.

Ting!

They suddenly flew open as the springs broke. He blinked in surprise to find an elevator. Seems that some parts of this building were-

Crack! Snap!

There was a loud cracking noise followed by a crisp snap like something was strained beyond its limit. Then the elevator cabin in front of him disappeared as it fell into the abyss of the elevator shaft. Throwing up sparks as the metal screeched against metal with a metal wiring flailing about as it fell. "Well that was definitely interesting." He mumbled under his breath as he watched the sparks disappear into the darkness.

He continued to watch the sparks disappear for a few minutes until he heard a faint sound or more likely the echo of the elevator finally crashing into the bottom floor. He tapped his ear piece to activate it again as he picked up his flash light to find a place to climb down the elevator shaft. "Hey Officer P'lice. Try to keep in contact with me if you can." He informed her as he spotted a stable spot and jumped towards it.

He landed on the metal beam and it creaked as he landed. He frowned for a moment. "I will. Is something going on?"

"Yeah the decay rate of this plate shows it is likely a place where it was built at least over a hundred-"

Crack!

The beam broke and he began to free fall into the shaft of the elevator. "Son of a-" He growled in annoyance as he dropped his flashlight to grab another beam as he fell.

Crack!

The next beam broke and he began to fall again. He managed to grab the edge of a wall and waited a moment before letting out a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?" Officer P'lice asked hesitantly over the channel he was connected to.

"No," Jace sighed as he let his eyes adjust to the dark. But before he could he saw something glowing out of the corner of his eye. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the moss which was growing even in the elevator shaft was glowing green and illuminating the place. It must be bioluminescent but only active when there was not another source of light. "I forgot that my weight has increased and jumped on a rusted piece of metal. Dropped my flashlight and now the only thing lighting up the area is green glowing moss."

"Sounds like unique specimens. Do you want to mark the location for specimen retrieval?" P'lice responded with a clear suppression of her laughter.

"Yes, but mark it for the military presence after we leave. This place is going to need a full exploratory squad." Jace answered as he looked up to find the bit of sunlight leaking in from outside. He had fallen a few floors. But he was still sensing a far distance before he reached the bottom. But now that he was inside he was also sensing a bit more. Seems that even his electrical senses were partially being blocked.

Jace jumped down again and this time expecting the breakage of metal he immediately jumped to another spot. The metal beam he had jumped to was already falling. He started to jump farther and farther down before he spotted a level he could enter. Most of the other levels he could easily scan and were small rooms with various electronics and a few other things.

Most of which was probably overgrown at this point. "Hey I am -kzzt- signal -kzzt-" The communication line began to get filled with static as he landed on the ledge with the doors. He considered pulling them open but instead just grabbed the edge of one of the doors and pulled it off.

It came off easily and flew down the elevator shaft as he stepped into the floor. It was the first floor that was not a single room. Instead it was a massive floor that went down three more floors. In fact the moment he stepped through he was on a ledge overlooking a large area. Stored in the center of this area was a massive skeleton. "Hey, Officer P'lice, if you can hear me, I am letting you know that I found a massive skeleton underground here." He only got static back a moment later. Like someone was responding but the message was being garbled.

He walked along the balcony overlooking the area and looked around. This place was clearly built into the ground. The walls were mostly still rock faces and had not been replaced with metal paneling with wires exposed and running along walls and the roof.

Jace could partially make out the skeleton as he moved around. There was not much else in here aside from the skeleton and what looked like a bunch of lab skeletons and mechanical arms that were once used to prod the skeleton.

The skeleton itself seemed to be a large ribcage with two arms that reached out the side of its body. A small pair of legs on the bottom part of its body. Then a tail that wrapped in a twirl. Then finally an angled head with a dual pair of teeth. He was starting to wish he had brought something to record everything he found.

After confirming there was nothing he could easily access he moved back to the elevator shaft and continued to jump down words. "Commander -kzzt- detecting - kzzt- ground-kzzt-" He heard for a moment as he started jumping down the elevator shaft but stopped quickly as the walls and entire area shook. Surprisingly it was only a faint movement this far down. It stopped after a few minutes and then he jumped down past some more levels that just had the same one room offices.

But he soon stopped again when he found another larger area. Except this one had branching rooms. But his senses were giving him confusing results.

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